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Sunday, June 1, 2014

Gotham Speculation Time!

What's this?! Scott Snyder waking me up saying there's some daring and amazing books (as in plural) coming to the bat-line this fall? Well you know what that means, right? RAMPANT SPECULATION TIME! I'm pretty good at this sort of stuff, but just remember where you saw it first if it ends up on some other site.

Catwoman

Retooled Catwoman is pretty much guaranteed at this point, and I'm not saying this built out of hyperbole fueled by personal hate for the book that's been flopping around like a fish on dry land that calls itself "Catwoman" from month to month. Ever since Batman #28, Scott Snyder has been out there in interviews saying the kingpin of Gotham bit with her will be reflected in her own book. Don't believe me? Let's go to the quotes!

"Catwoman, similarly, will kind of grow in ETERNAL and in CATWOMAN you'll see some great stuff about her rise to power and stuff as well."

That was from one of the many interviews Snyder did on the subject of Batman #28, and given that issue took place around the 2/3 mark of Batman Eternal, October, which would be the soonest we could get new titles due to Futures End month, would be the best place to start, especially if there's some rise to power stuff that needs to be accomplished.

It'd be interesting to see a monthly book trying to keep up with a weekly, but then again I wouldn't be surprised if the book just told the story of how Selina got there, meanwhile Eternal is her acting in that position. But anyways, this one seems to be a lock, and I'd expect a new creative team as well.

And as a personal random prediction, I'd like to see Moritat on art. He's got a great unique style that would fit the new direction, and was super dependable on All-Star Western, which he mysteriously departed from and has been pitching in here and there for other books since.

Bluebird

I wouldn't be surprised by a potential title starring Harper Row, but I feel like it could be a bit too soon. Where I think a retooled Catwoman is a lock, Bluebird in her own book is more of a "certainly possible" from me. I mean, something with Bluebird front and center, again, has basically been confirmed by Scott Snyder. A month or so ago at C2E2, when asked if Bluebird would get her own one-shot or mini series, Snyder answered that yes, she'd get something, but it'd be "bigger than a mini or a one-shot." So again, that seems pretty god damn confirmed. I wouldn't be surprised to see someone close to Snyder's camp take this book on, such as James Tynion, who is writing her in Eternal or Marguerite Bennet, who I'm surprised hasn't been given a book at DC yet scratch that, forgot about the third weekly coming in October. I also wouldn't be surprised if Dustin Nguyen was announced to be the penciller on the series, he did design her costume, and does seem to sketch her a lot on his tumblr. I got nothing to back that one up, but it's one of those gut feelings.

Red Robin

Fuck, man... I don't know. I'm basically hedging my bets on this one, after all, Tim Drake is pretty much the only major Bat Family character who hasn't had his own series in the New 52 yet. Sure, there's Teen Titans, which is getting a relaunch, but with Eternal, there seems to be a push to try and get Tim reincorporated into Gotham, while he still has his Titans duties. That said, while I think this is just a general safe bet, it could just as easily not be happening as well. Snyder did say that the books we can expect are "daring." You know who isn't daring? Tim Drake. Sorry Drakers...? A Red Robin book is pretty much the least daring thing DC could do. This week there was an interview with Tim Seeley and Tom King about Grayson, where they talked about how troubling it can be to write Dick Grayson as Nightwing in Gotham and try not to fall into the trap of him just being Batman-lite. You know whose bread and butter that is? Tim Drake. While I'll admit that Tim can be a very entertaining character, a lot of who he is often becomes very derivative of Batman. It's either Tim being Batman-lite, or trying real hard not to be Batman-lite and not all dark or whatever... Either way, they're both informed by Batman. Don't get me wrong, if someone can teach me to love again, I'll be all for it, but I just don't see a Red Robin book being particularly "daring."

The Leftovers

And this is the section where I just talk about what there is left in terms of possibilities... and to be honest, there isn't a whole lot. When you look at the Gotham landscape, pretty much every major character has been given their shot at a title outside of Red Robin, Harper Row, and Stephanie Brown, who I believe it's too early to give a book to (post Eternal is another story). There really is no one left, unless you're that one person who sticks their hand up says "Cassandra Cain." shuddup, you. That's not coming out of nowhere. But really, there's no one left to give a book to... Maybe that character who was revealed in Batman Eternal #8, whose identity we will learn this week is that important that she warrants a new book, but again, highly doubt it. Uuuuuh... you could do a GCPD book, but given the current state of the GCPD, I don't think that'd be a very entertaining read. Other than that, I'm coming up blank. There really are no other obvious characters to give books to... The only thing I could think of is relaunch some of the already cancelled books, like Birds of Prey, with a new team, but that seems too soon... Batman Inc would be interesting? But I honestly can't see that happening.

But in other news, to further support already listed theories, Marguerite Bennett has said something she's been working on since October is getting announced this week. Hard to say what that could be, as it could very well just be the proper reveal of World's End or whatever the third weekly is called, because outside of that, I can't see either DC or Marvel planning any regular book that far ahead as October of last year... Unless it's Catwoman, which I guess a general idea of where that would go had to be thought up around then as well. Or perhaps whatever she's talking about is something completely her own! But the timing seems to be a bit suspicious...

Also, Meghan Hetrick, who drew Nightwing #30, only to have it scrapped, did tweet out that she's drawing her first cover for DC at the moment. Maybe we see "cover by Meghan Hetrick" on one of these books, or perhaps it's a variant, which outside of the themed ones, DC has been soliciting regular variants of late too. Who knows, just making note! EDIT: Oh wait, I do know, she's doing a variant for New Suicide Squad in August.

It's also worth noting that we may very well get New 52 October solicits this month. Everything other than Batman Eternal and Futures End has been solicited for September already, keep that in mind. Recently on a diamond shipping update, the correction for Worlds' Finest not being cancelled made note that Worlds Finest #27 would be solicited in the July Previews catalog for sale in October. Given that the June catalog is already in stores as of late May, the July one comes out in June... So perhaps DC incidentally backed themselves into a corner where they have to solicit things a month earlier, or just go one month without soliciting anything new in their main line. We'll see.

17 comments
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I wonder if Marguerite Bennett might not be Batman related. Maybe it's a Lois Lane related comic? I heard her one shot was very popular and it might justify another one or a mini-series? I dunno, I'm just guessing.

I'm still hoping for a new creative team switch with Catwoman. August's solicit information, again, makes me think that it is the end of the line for Nocenti's run.

Yeah, if Bennett's book is something DC related, it could very well be something outside of Batman since she got tapped for that weekly book. But the timing of the two tweets in question make me think otherwise.

I wouldn't be surprised if there was a GCPD book coming out, in the vein of 'Gotham Central'. With the new TV series 'Gotham' starting on FOX in September, it's definitely a possibility. In fact, I would welcome it with open arms.

No. You can't really do a villain book like that, because when villains win, the heroes lose and die, which just doesn't happen. Any book that stars villains usually has a different sort of hook, like relying on humor, but none of those you suggested would work in that way.

Again, had elements of dry wit and humor, as well as the underdog mentality which allows you to root for them, despite them being the "bad guys." Where as the leads listed above, you can't really pull any of that off. Bane is rather one note, he gets old fast by himself, League of Assassins has no compelling reason to be an ongoing title, and Joker... have you seen Joker lately? You can't make a book out of a psychotic murderer who represents pure unremorseful murder. The only way a Joker book could work is if they did it in the vein of Harley Quinn, where it was goofy as shit and detached from everything else, but that's not who the Joker is at the moment.